Erin’s Journals

January 5, 2025

A New Year With so Many More Memories

Hallo! Frohes Neues Jahr! It feels like it has been no time since I wrote my last journal entry, but it has already been two months which is so crazy!

As soon as you hit the middle of November here in Germany it becomes Christmas time. There is no need to wait for Thanksgiving so everyone starts preparing for Christmas extra early. One of the most beloved Christmas traditions all over Europe and especially in Germany is the Weihnachtsmarkts (Christmas Markets) where people go to shop for gifts, eat some classic German food, and most importantly drink glühwein (mulled wine) or punsch (non-alcoholic glüwein). When the days start getting shorter and shorter, one starts to understand the importance of lighting up the winter time. I successfully managed to visit four Weihnachtsmarkts in December which may not seem like a lot, but when you travel to them it is. 

My favorite Weihnachtsmarkt was definitely the one in Strasbourg, France that I went to with my host mom and host sister. On the Saturday of the First Advent we headed out around 13:00 to drive the hour and a half to Strasbourg (I live very close to the french border). Once we got there we just started walking to the city center to find many many different Christmas markets. It was almost like there was a new Christmas Market on every street! Apparently Strasbourg has over 500 individual Christmas Markets and I'm pretty sure we only went through probably 10-15 of them. After walking around and enjoying all the different lights and decorations, we got some glühwein to drink while we enjoyed a light show on the Christmas tree in the main square that was over 30 m (98 ft+) tall! Afterwards, we enjoyed some classic Weihnachtsmarkt foods like spätzle and had some crepes while enjoying the beautiful city. The other Christmas markets I visited included Heidelberg (natürlich), Neuenheim, and Ladenburg.

Now one thing that I don’t think Germans ever get enough of during Christmas time is Raclette. I’m pretty sure at this point I’ve had it over five times in the span of less than a month. Don’t get me wrong though it is delicious and I will never say no to a nice raclette dinner. Raclette is made of a base of potatoes with a variety of toppings that are cooked with a thick slice of cheese overtop. My favorite raclette combination is speck Würfeln (bacon pieces), Zwiebeln (onions), and Pilze (mushrooms). Some other notable and not normal combinations I tried with my friends include pizza raclette, nacho raclette, and pancake raclette.

Thankfully during December I did not have very many Arbeits (tests) in school and there is no finals week so I got to enjoy a chill month in school where we went to the Heidelberg christmas market, made crepes, and did many more fun little activities. I go to a private school in Germany which means it is allowed to have a religious affiliation. My school offers catholic, evangelical, and ethics as options. During December we had a Gottesdienst (worship) service for Christmas which was very interesting. It included songs in German and English (my school is the Englisches Institut) and some readings done by the students. 

I can’t forget to mention the very important day December 6th also known as St. Nikolaus Tag where children put out their shoes on the night of December 5th by the front door and get gifts such as candy and chocolate the next morning.

Once the Christmas holidays begin everyone starts to focus on Christmas and preparing everything. I think I was in the city every single day for a week straight the week before Christmas shopping to make sure I had all the gifts I needed. Christmas in German is celebrated through the span of three days and celebrated by each family a little differently. On the fourth advent, my host mom’s extended family came for the weekend to celebrate here in Heidelberg. This included going to the Ladenburg Weihnachtsmarkt and making raclette (of course).

Then on the 23rd of December, my host mom, sister, oma, dad, and I went one city over to Mannheim to see Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel (Three hazelnuts for Cinderella) with a live orchestra. It was such a beautiful performance and it was my first time seeing the movie making it even more special. 

The next three days are used for the celebration of Christmas in Germany, the 24th-26th. People work a half day on the 24th and stores close at 2pm and have the rest of the day off. With my host family we celebrated Weihnachten (Christmas) by making a big Christmas dinner of Ente (duck), Rotkohl (red cabbage), and Knödel (potato dumpling balls). We went to the church service of the local evangelical church in the area where we sang many Christmas songs and lit candles to celebrate the birth of christ. After the 5pm church service we came back and finished making our christmas dinner before eating and then opening presents. Presents are not as big of a deal around Christmas here than they are in the USA. Christmas is more about spending time with family and friends and enjoying all the time you have together. I celebrated Christmas with my host mom, dad, sister, and oma (grandma).

The next day, my host mom, sister, oma, and I drove up north to a city called Hamm where my host oma and other extended family lives. The drive took around four hours and was filled with the fog and rain of Sauerland. On the 26th, we celebrated Weihnachten with my host moms entire extended family which included my host aunt and uncle and cousins. We started with Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake), then took a walk, and of course had raclette for dinner. We continued the celebrations with Wichteln (secret santa). I had one of my host cousins and I got her the game she wished for and my host aunt and uncle had me and they got me “Crime and Punishment” by Dostoyevsky which I have been really wanting to read. One thing I have been able to enjoy during my exchange year is my love for books and digging deeper into reading in multiple languages. My new challenge for reading is “Brief an den Vater” by Franz Kafka (auf Deutsch natürlich).

The most exciting part of the past couple months for me though has definitely been our Rotary ski trip to the Italian Alps for six days. We left on the 28th of December and arrived back in Germany on the 3rd of January. We spent five days learning how to ski and by the end of it I could successfully go down the intermediate slopes very easily. It was amazing being able to see my friends again from the other districts and ski with them. This trip was with three other districts including the other district that was on the Germany tour. I got to meet so many more people too from the other districts that I had never met before. We went skiing in the Northern part of Italy in Lappach Südtirol. It is a very German part of Italy though and almost everyone there speaks German so all the people at the hotel and the ski resort spoke German with us. It was also amazing to be able to celebrate Silvester (New years) with the other exchange students. It was really a once in a lifetime experience that I will never forget.

I start school in a few days and I know I think time will go by so slowly, but these next few months will probably fly by before I know it.

Tschüssi!

P.s.- on the ski tour I had my friends cut my hair and I have a mullet now!!